DirecTV Makes $40M VOD Deal With A24: Report

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Enemy is the first picture the satellite company will offer on VOD exclusively for 30 days as part of the new deal with A24, the Wall Street Journalsays. DirecTV has committed $40M to co-finance and market indie movies with A24. It will have the right to show them first on VOD to its 20M subscribers. The goal is to help DirecTV distinguish itself from rivals including cable companies and Dish Network. But the films that debut on VOD likely will only be able to move on to theaters that specialize in indie films. Big chains including Regal and AMC typically don’t touch films that are shown first on other platforms. A DirecTV exec told the Journal that it plans to introduce a new movie every month with a “huge marketing push.” It will charge as much as $12.99 for a seven-day rental, with Enemy making its debut early in 2014. My colleague Mike Fleming reported this month from the Toronto International Film Festival that A24 was in exclusive negotiations for the U.S. rights to Enemy, a Denis Villeneuve-directed drama that also stars Isabella Rossellini. He said it was headed toward “a low 7-figure deal with an aggressive rollout to take place sometime in the spring.”